Emma was 32 and had been a very sporty person. She loved walking, dancing and swimming and would often meet friends for a coffee or lunch when she could and enjoyed going to the theatre and travelling with her husband. She worked in an office, 30 minutes drive away, as an accountant and felt that she was getting on well in her career.
Emma then had a car accident which left her with a broken leg and bad whiplash. The whiplash caused back pain and other problems. Over the weeks and months, her leg gradually healed and the whiplash improved, but her back still caused her a lot of pain. After 18 months she still could not sit still for very long, was very uncomfortable at night, and regularly took painkillers to get her through the day. Going to work was gruelling, because she hated the drive, feeling terrified of another accident, and all of her energy went into coping with sitting all day and trying to concentrate when she had no energy left for her job. She stopped going out and tried to rest as much as possible to stop her back from hurting. At one point she had some nerve block injections, but these only gave her some relief for a few weeks then the pain returned, and she was eventually told she could not have any more and they would no longer work.
When Emma did the chronic pain course, she felt bleak about the future and felt completely stuck.
Emma started to do the course at her own pace, and began to understand what had happened to make her pain so chronic, and why it caused a lot of depression and anxiety, especially when she felt she was a bit better, increased her activity levels to make the most of the good days, then collapsed a couple of days later. She also learnt that her mental state had a huge impact on her ability to cope with her physical pain, and she also realised how many of the fun things in her life she had given up.
She was able to use the simple but effective techniques in the course to start getting on top of her pain and by quickly having small “wins” and “victories”, which she realised gave her self-confidence a massive boost and helped her to see that it was possible for her to get back to her chosen lifestyle again. She started accepting invitations from friends again and found that she could go for longer and longer walks without suffering for it. She was very excited when she and her husband managed to go to the theatre after 2 years of finding this impossible.
Emma said: “Sue’s course has literally given me my life back. I am so grateful to have been able to do it. She explains things in ways that make so much sense and understands why it’s so scary to go out of your comfort zone if you think it will affect your pain. She makes it fun to try things out, and for me, understanding how my thoughts can interfere with what I choose to do was a game changer. I would not be doing all of the things I do now in my life if I hadn’t done her course – I would recommend it to anyone who is suffering from long-term pain”